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AGENCY

Lydia Wills LLC is a literary and management agency that represents storytelling—fiction and nonfiction—across all platforms. Its principal, Lydia Wills, graduated from Yale University where she studied art and religion, ​and began her career as an agent at Janklow & Nesbit. In order to better represent clients in all media, she founded the literary division of three talent agencies, Artist​s​ Agency, Writers & Artists, and Paradigm Agency before founding Lydia Wills LLC. She has represented over fifty New York Times bestsellers, and is particularly devoted to nonfiction storytelling that sparks social change.

BOOKS

CONTACT

Lydia Wills LLC

5344 N Paulina 3F

Chicago, IL 60640

 

917-292-8314

lydiawills@gmail.com

 

Submissions:
Please send a query by email to lydiawills@gmail.com.
We do not accept any unsolicited material.

DEALS

Television Rights

Jason Berry and Gerald Renner's VOWS OF SILENCE and RENDER UNTO ROME, based on the Catholic church's history of burying the graft, corruption, and pedophilia of Mexican priest Father Marcial Maciel, one of the most powerful and manipulative personalities of the 20th century, to producer Mark Johnson ("Breaking Bad," "Rain Man"), in association with Exile Content and ViX+/TelevisaUnivision, a limited Spanish language series "Amen," in a two-book deal, by Lydia Wills at Lydia Wills LLC.

Nonfiction: Memoir

Rhodes Scholar and Harvard Junior Fellow Rachel Kolb's ARTICULATE, about the author growing up profoundly deaf to hearing parents in the early days of the Americans with Disabilities Act, blending personal narrative and cultural commentary to explore language, voice, d/Deaf culture, and the ways we communicate with one another, to Sarah Murphy at Ecco, in a very nice deal, by Lydia Wills at Lydia Wills (world).

Nonfiction: History/Science/Technology

Betselling author of HOW WE GOT TO NOW, Steven Johson's next book in the tie-in series to the PBS/BB series HOW WE GOT TO NEXT to Geoff Kloske at Riverhead Books.

Film/Television Rights

Ryan O'Connell's I'M SPECIAL: AND OTHER LIES WE TELL OURSELVES to Warner Brothers with Jim Parsons/That's Wonderful attached as producer, by UTA on behalf of Lydia Wills LLC.

Children's: Picture Book

International bestselling author China Mieville and artist/author Zak Smith's illustrated THE WORST BREAKFAST, to Johnny Temple at Akashic, by Lydia Wills at Lydia Wills and Mic Cheetham in the UK.

Nonfiction: History/Politics/Current Affairs

New York Times bestselling author of GRIFTOPIA, Matt Taibbi's I CAN'T BREATHE about the Eric Garner case and the criminal justice system in America to Chris Jackson at Spiegel & Grau.

Nonfiction: Memoir

Editor of The NYT Book Review and author of By The Book Pamela Paul's MY LIFE WITH BOB, where she tells the personal side of her long-standing affinity for books; Bob is the acronym for Book of Books, the annotated journal she has kept since 1988 of books she has read that drove her interests, shaped her thinking, and ultimately revealed as much about her literary passions, passing curiosities, and guilty pleasures as any constant companion, again to Paul Golob at Holt, in a pre-empt, for publication in Fall 2017.

FOREIGN
AGENTS

Lydia Wills LLC Foreign Sub-Agents

 

Brazil

João Paulo Riff and Laura Riff
Agência Riff

Avenida Calógeras n° 6, sl 1007

20030-070 - Centro 

Rio de Janeiro, RJ Brasil
Phone: 55-21-2287-6299
joaopaulo@agenciariff.cm.br
laura@agenciariff.cm.br

 

China (Mainland and Taiwan)

Vincent Lin
Big Apple Agency
Taiwan Office
16F. No.866-8, Zhongzheng Road
Zhonghe District, New Taipei City 235, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
Tel +886-2-8228-7211*103
Fax +886-2-8228-6741
Vincent-lin@bigapple1-taipei.com

Big Apple Agency - Shanghai Office
3F, No. 838, Zhong Shan Bei Road
Zha-Bei District, Shanghai 200070

 

France

Michèle Kanonidis
La Nouvelle Agence
7, rue Corneille
Paris 75006, FRANCE
Phone: +33-1-43-25-85-60
Michele@lanouvelleagence.fr

 

Germany

Sebastian Ritscher
MOHRBOOKS AG
Literary Agency
Klosbachstr. 110, CH-8032 Zürich
SWITZERLAND
Tel. +41-43-244-86-26

sebastian.ritscher@mohrbooks.com

 

Italy

Erica Berla
Berla & Griffini Rights Agency
Via Stampa 4
Milano 20123
Italy
Phone: +39-02-80504179
berla@bgagency.it

 

Japan

Miko Yamanouchi
Japan UNI Agency, Inc.
1-27 Kanda-Jinbocho, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 101-0051
Japan
Phone: 81-3-3295-0301
miko.yamanouchi@japanuni.co.jp

 

Korea

Alex Lee
Milkwood Agency
#1708, Magellan 21 Officetel,
156-2, Donggyo-dong
Mapo-gu, Seoul, 121-816
KOREA
Phone: +82-02- 3676 -0290
Fax: 82-02-6008-8126
alex@milkwoodagency.com

 

Netherlands

Linda Kohn
Internationaal Literatuur Bureau B.V.
Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 292-IV
1012 RT Amsterdam
THE NETHERLANDS
Phone: 0031-20-3306658
fax: 0031-20-4229210
lkohn@planet.nl

 

Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland

Philip Sane
Lennart Sane Agency AB
Holländareplan 9
SE-374 34 Karlshamn
SWEDEN
T: +46 454 123 56
F: +46 454 149 20
philip.sane@lennartsaneagency.com
lina.hammarling@lennartsaneagency.com

 

Spain/Latin America and Portugal

Lennart Sane Agency AB
C/ Infanta Mercedes 90
ES-28020 Madrid
SPAIN
Pho
ne: +34 91 579 80 46
Fax: +34 91 579 89 84

 

Turkey

Amy Spangler
AnatoliaLit Agency
Caferaga Mah.

Gunesli Bahce Sok.
No:48 Or.Ko Apt.
B Blok D:4
34710 Kadikoy- Istanbul
TURKEY

Tel: +90 216 338 70 93
Fax: +90 216 338 59 78
amy@anatolialit.com

“Lydia Wills, your insight and expertise are invaluable and I am absolutely honored to have you on the team. In addition, you simply redefine the word ‘cool’.” 

 

“Lydia Wills, you are still the personification of ‘cool’ and the rest of us are just taking notes. You constantly amaze me with your business savvy and discerning intuition. Thank you for taking this journey with me.”"

Blair Underwood,

actor and author of the
Tennyson Hardwick series of books, including “In the Night of the Heat” (Atria).

“For Lydia, true believer.”

Steven Johnson, 

international bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning producer and television host, in his dedication of New York Times bestselling book
“Everything Bad Is Good For You” (Riverhead).

“…Lydia Wills, who has worked with me for twenty-five years now. This is the thirteenth book we have worked on together. That number should speak for itself, but in this case, it doesn’t; Lydia has been a guiding light for my entire career, the person who got me thinking about the long arc of a ‘career’ in the first place.”

And, in Steven Johnson’s book 
“Enemy of All Mankind” (Riverhead).

“It is to Lydia Wills that I owe the most. I hope she’ll forgive the cliché, but she believed in this book, and in me, even when I didn’t; she knew better than (and before) I did what it really was, and worked hard for it to be allowed to take its proper shape. She’s a wonderful agent and a treasured friend.”

Daniel Mendelsohn,

international bestselling author and recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, in “The Elusive Embrace” (Knopf).

“Thank you, to my literary agent, for the first push, for always insisting on referring to me as ‘writer,’ and far too much to name after that.”

Rachel Dratch,

actor and author of the New York Times-bestselling book “Girl Walks Into A Bar” (Avery).
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